GLOBAL MARKETS – Asian equities mixed, US dollar close to 2-1 / 2 year lows

SYDNEY, Dec.3 (Reuters) – Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday after a choppy day of trading on Wall Street, in part thanks to a disappointing U.S. jobs report, as the greenback languished near lows of 2-1 / 2 years on the growing optimism of a vaccine against the coronavirus.

Britain became the first Western country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with 800,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine available for those at high risk starting next week.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding its advisory committee meeting next week, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s first delivery, sufficient for 170,000 residents, was scheduled for December 15.

Hopes that the pandemic, which has so far killed nearly 1.5 million people worldwide, will finally be brought to its knees has triggered a resumption of risk in currency markets, the Australian and New Zealand dollars progressing compared to their American counterpart.

The dollar index slipped to a 2 1/2 year low of 90.987 on Wednesday and last stood at 91.048.

“Currency investors are taking more risk after the latest vaccine breakthroughs, depending on the options,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Hopes for a US budget support package also fueled investor optimism.

But stock traders were less enthusiastic.

The largest MSCI index for Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan barely changed after two straight days of gains.

Japan’s Nikkei was 0.2% weaker while South Korea’s KOSPI was stable and Australia’s benchmark was slightly higher. Chinese stocks opened a little lower, with the blue chip CSI300 index at 0.03%.

“Markets are likely to get complicated from here,” said Michael Frazis, portfolio manager at Frazis Capital Partners in Sydney.

“The price of the vaccine is getting higher and higher. A few months ago, no one knew how deep the coronavirus would be, or what the outcome of the election was. Now the two sources of uncertainty have been removed. “

Concerns about the slowing U.S. economy weighed on stocks after U.S. private payrolls showed fewer jobs than expected were added in November as growth in new COVID-19 infections resulted in additional trade restrictions.

Overnight, Wall Street shifted between red and green territories, but eventually ended up a little firmer. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 gained 0.2% each, while the high tech Nasdaq barely moved.

In currencies, the risk-sensitive Australian hit an over two-year high of $ 0.7420 overnight and was last at $ 0.7399. Its kiwi cousin was the latest at $ 0.7062, standing near the highest since May 2018.

The euro hit $ 1.2113, after hitting its highest level since late April 2018 in yesterday’s trading.

In commodities, oil prices slipped Thursday after rising overnight on the COVID-19 vaccine. Hopes and expectations of producing countries would keep limits on their production.

Brent fell 13 cents to $ 48.11 a barrel while US light crude fell 15 cents to $ 45.13.

Gold was slightly weaker at $ 1,827 an ounce.